Chapter 209
Chapter 209
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 209
Chapter Title: Even If I Fall Into a Ghost Story, I Still Have to Go to Work
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6 PM, as the sun began to set.
A dim sunset glow reflected in the entrance of a certain building in Seoul.
A cold, pristine first-floor space with a modern structure.
This was the lobby of Daydream Corporation's annex.
However, the space that should have been desolate and eerie was now buzzing with a modest liveliness from the murmur of people.
"Whoa, the atmosphere."
"Hello. Yes, yes. Nice to meet you..."
Dozens of fresh-faced new hires in black suits were gathered, exchanging greetings with one another.
Their faces shone with anticipation and tension.
It was only natural.
"Congrats on getting hired!"
"Hahaha, thanks. You too!"
They had just successfully joined Daydream, the infamous pharmaceutical giant that had been the hottest topic in the stock market for the past few years!
And so, the company had summoned them via email to the annex next to the Seoul headquarters.
Today was the first day of orientation.
"Two nights and three days at the Seoul annex? It's almost luxurious."
"Right? For real. Wow, this lobby looks like an art museum."
"Man, as expected of a big corp... Oh, are we all sales reps here?"
"Seems like it. From what I've heard, everyone's in sales."
"Then new hires from other departments might be gathering elsewhere nearby."
Drunk on the joy of passing, they laughed and chatted with one another. There was no reason not to get along. These were the fellow new hires they'd keep seeing as fellow victors in this pharma powerhouse! Naturally, some even extended a hand to those left out of the conversations.
"Hey, you a new hire too?"
"......"
Amid the noisy cluster of new hires, one person who had been quietly staring into the annex interior lifted their head. A peer with a gaunt complexion. The new hire leading the conversation pressed on with a hint of smugness.
"Congrats on joining! Let's do our best!"
But...
"Thanks."
And that was it.
"......"
"......"
Silence. What the hell. What kind of sales new hire lacked that much approachability? How the hell did they even pass the interview? As the mood grew awkward, the one who'd spoken hurriedly blabbered on.
"Haha, actually... I have a friend who already works at Daydream."
"Whoa."
"For real?"
"Wow, which department?"
"Yep. Research team, I think?"
The others exploded in reaction! The new hire inwardly sighed in relief at reviving the vibe, continuing in a subtly boastful tone.
"But get this—they told me not to come. Said I'd regret it if I joined."
"Haha!"
"Friends who got hired first always say that."
"Exactly!"
"......"
The group laughed as if hearing the usual gripes of overworked modern office workers. However...
"...Department."
"Pardon?"
The silent one's mouth opened.
"That friend of yours... which department..."
At that moment.
"...!"
The crowd looked up in unison.
A speaker mounted in the corner of the wall.
A peppy, slick male voice began emanating from it.
Waaaaah!
The new hires clapped enthusiastically, though with a touch of puzzlement.
"Why over the speaker...?"
Why wasn't he showing his face?
"Maybe it's something just among us?"
"...!"
H-he's listening...!
The new hires quickly took it positively.
"To help us bond with our cohort fast!"
"Even better. Haha."
They'd heard big corps and trendy ventures ran orientations creatively or uniquely these days.
"I heard some do murder mystery board games with the company as the backdrop."
The tone from the speaker rose excitedly.
At the same time.
Tat-tat-tat-tat.
The lights in the annex entrance flicked on.
"...!"
Under the bright incandescent lights, things previously hidden came into view.
Over there, the dark hallway lined with heavy steel doors.
"......"
It felt less like maintaining security and more like isolating and containing something... massive and alien.
Why does a company annex have stuff like that...?
But before doubts could linger, eyes focused on the brightest spot.
A lone reception desk at the entrance.
And atop it, a conspicuous object.
"Ah...!"
The new hires blinked, confirming it.
A pitch-black cylindrical box.
"A lottery drum?"
It was large and worn.
Shabby and crumpled, utterly mismatched with the modern, pristine marble lobby.
The top of the thick-paper black drum was covered to hide the contents, but the silhouette revealed three holes.
Each round lid numbered.
"Ah, yes sir!"
Amid the murmurs, the three pointed out stepped forward hesitantly but without backing down.
And drew their lots.
Flip.
The contents on each slip were as follows.
⓵ 6th Floor
⓶ 322
⓷ Recite one lullaby from memory
"This is..."
Gazes shifted to the whiteboard.
A printed sentence was there.
I go down to Basement ⓵___
at Room ⓶____
and ⓷______________.
As they filled in the numbers...
The sentence completed.
Like this.
I go down to Basement 6
at Room 322
and recite one lullaby from memory.
"......"
"......"
An inexplicable chill crept in from the completed sentence.
Basement?
That was the moment.
As if reading the mood, cheerful motivation poured from the speaker.
100 points?
"Can I ask what that buys?"
"Ooh!"
If it could buy a robot vacuum, it had to be a hefty sum!
The mood brightened instantly.
Rationality and realism kicked in with quick math.
Yeah, worst case it's like a guts test.
The company isn't stupid enough to make us do anything really dangerous.
With so many people and teams of three, it was hard to even feel scared.
Even if they prepped some jump scares, it had to be bearable for the timid too!
The new hires nodded and smiled at one another.
"Do we take the stairs?"
"Yes!"
Chatting among themselves, they reached into the black box with excited faces, drawing their fateful slips.
The lots that would decide their destiny.
"Fighting!"
"Our trio's heading out first. This elevator, right?"
"Let's go. Basement 6!"
The mood was perfect.
Until 34 minutes later, when the elevator doors opened to reveal their cohort's lower halves only.
"Aaaah!"
"Aaack!"
And it continued.
Ding.
Ding.
Ding.
Each arriving elevator chime, each opening door brought screams in dissonant harmony echoing through the annex lobby.
Screams, terror, panic.
The steadily arriving elevators were filled every other one with what had once been 'bodies'.
Horrific forms unimaginable in reality. Blood, filth, organ chunks, sometimes ashes and ice, scraps of human skin scribbled with ballpoint pen notes.
Even employees who'd scrawled bizarre messages or symbols on the elevator mirrors with their own blood before dying from blood loss.
"Uwaaaah!!!"
Even those who returned alive weren't sane.
"We gotta run! Run! Run away!"
"S-sorry. Sorry, sorry for knocking on the door, so sorry..."
They muttered deliriously.
Then, somewhat normal ones appeared.
"Th-this guy's intact!"
"......"
"What the hell happened?! What is this?!"
The new hire who'd used a dead colleague as a shield in front of the elevator door said with a pale face.
"Someone was there."
Beyond the doors they'd entered.
"Who?! Who the hell?!"
"......"
"Some... weird employee."
And survivor testimonies poured out.
The silent, barren basement hallways revealed upon elevator opening.
The numerous steel doors there, and the strange marks only on the ones they visited. The sounds, fishy smells, lights from those doors only...
And what they'd glimpsed through the small peephole above the room numbers.
The 'employee' inside.
"They wore uniforms but... weird. So weird..."
Childlike figures, doctor gowns, oxygen tanks, balloon bouquets, cowboy hats with wooden hands, lion-masks from folk dances...
The grotesque descriptions chilled spines.
And.
"Th-they reacted."
"...!"
"They reacted to what we did! Ch-chased us, and... like that!"
Gazes turned to the body parts in the elevators.
"......"
"......"
The new hires realized.
The 'perform your sentence' mission.
Was a horror movie-style suicide act.
That they'd been swept into an unreal catastrophe.
"No!"
About half who hadn't gone yet, faces ashen blue, glanced at each other then bolted for the main entrance.
But the annex's sole door was sealed shut.
They clung to the lowered shutter.
"Help us!"
"M-my phone won't connect. What do we do?"
"This... this has to be a variety show. Yeah, uh, there are cameras here somewhere..."
"Open the door! Please open the door!"
Bang bang bang!
No response even pounding till their fists bled.
Some new hires caught on to another way.
"The speakers!"
They swarmed the speakers whence 'Section Chief Kwak Je-gang's' voice had come, pouring pleas, terror, rescue requests.
But...
No more 'Section Chief Kwak Je-gang' voice from the speakers.
Instead, a cheery recorded message looped.
Beep beep beep beep- beep!
"Aaaah!"
Two employees trying to break the shutter had their heads explode, dying.
Hell on earth.
"Uh, uhhh..."
"Hic-sob."
Unable to grasp the mechanism or reason.
The unreal scene paradoxically quieted the chaos.
From then, lobby folks huddled trembling by the desk for over half a day.
Occasional whispers and moves to escape, but no one touched the elevators.
Missions showed no sign of proceeding.
Then came the absurd incentive.
"......"
"......"
New hires eyed each other with trembling gazes.
Someone.
Had to be sent.
Into the elevator.
Who?
"F-fuck..."
The new hire who'd bragged hours ago about a friend in the company shrank into a corner, avoiding eyes.
Sweating coldly, they rechecked their team's sentence.
I go down to Basement 13
at Room 666
knock and enter inside.
Dead meat.
No surviving such ominous numbers.
Run...
Then.
"The next ones who drew! Them!"
Damn it!
"Over there, those guys!"
"...!"
The crowd rushed, shoving his team into the elevator forcibly.
They resisted madly but numbers overwhelmed. No weapons either.
"No!"
As he thrashed in panic, mashing the open button frantically.
A teammate grabbed his hand, pulling it down.
"...!"
"Too late now."
Thud.
Doors shut.
"Hic!"
Turning in terror, unable to even feel anger, the gaunt-faced peer stared back.
The unusually quiet one.
But now spoke calmly, explanatory.
"Security protocol killed someone. Staying in the lobby meant death anyway..."
"......"
"No choice now but to do it."
"N-no...!"
"Calm down and think. Plenty came back intact."
As if snapping him out of it, the other gripped his shoulder.
"...Surely one of every three teams testified 'nothing happened'."
"...!!"
Indeed.
"Even incident teams had half survive. Better odds than rotting in the lobby."
"......"
"...Based on prior testimonies, let's move carefully."
Panting, the two new hires nodded slowly. His calm suggested experience. The braggart unwittingly asked.
"You... what's your name...?"
"......"
The silent one replied.
"Jang Heo-un."
Ding. Elevator arrived at basement. Trembling, new hires stepped into the old hallway lined with steel doors. And found their room.
Inhaling sharply, hand to the door.
Knock knock knock.
I had a dream.
A truly bizarre and nightmarish one.
A dream where I fell into the creepy ghost story wiki I loved.
In it, I became an elite employee at a horrific pharma company shoving staff into ghost stories to brew potion ingredients.
I even infiltrated the special agency rescuing people from ghost stories, the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau, as a spy.
Through it all, the myriad [Darkness Exploration Records] wiki horrors I entered.
Hide-and-seek with ghosts in a convenience store, lethal quiz shows, ink-wash paintings crawling with window ghosts, exhibitions collecting organs as admission, bizarre theme parks...
Fierce, eerie days teetering on life and death.
Yet unforgettable people too.
A lingering afterimage. Like dreams where details fade on waking, but vivid impressions and echoes shockingly remain. Especially if the end was horrific and shocking. After surviving death's door, enduring terror at the ghost story company, the moment I drank the long-desired Wish Grant... In truth I■■■■■■am not crash-landed from another world but invited and my body is not human■■■■■■■realize■■■. No! I don't want to wake. Don't want to know reality. Don't want to realize I'm still at Daydream Corporation. ...... And the next instant, I realized. I cannot sleep.
"Hah."
Dawn. I jolted up in bed, gasping. Or rather, that 'breathing' sound must have come out. If I had proper vocal cords.
"......"
Hand to throat. A hissing vapor sound. My gloved hand felt not flesh but rubbery work suit around the neck. Groping. Human silhouette. But touching the bizarre, myriad rib-like horns connecting upward, I dropped my hand.
"......"
Realizing again. I cannot sleep.
-Wheeeeeng!
Your shift time. Rise. Your shift time. Rise...
I rose from the iron bed, beginning today's shift.
As per contract.